France v Switzerland

Les Bleus vs Die Eidgennossen (The Oath Comrades)

First off, nice work by ESPN announcing during the Korea game that France was playing Zidane as a lone striker.  France is actually starting a 4-5-1 with two defensive midfielders behind a playmaker, and a lone striker.  Kind of like they've been doing for at least the last 4 tournaments.  It's a step up from 2002, when ABC rearranged France's line-up for the opening game into a 4-4-2 because they couldn't get their heads around Henry playing on the left wing (which is where he roams half the time as a striker, as anybody who's ever seen him play for Arsenal could tell you).  Seriously, where the fuck is Statboy when this stuff is going on?  (Don't get me started on mispronouncing Michel Platini's name when there's a commercial featuring him on during every game.)

Anyways, here's France's line-up (left to right):

Fabien Barthez

Eric Abidal
William Gallas
Lilian Thuram
Willy Sagnol

Frank Ribery
Claude Makelele
Zinedine Zidane
Patrick Vieira
Sylvain Wiltord

Thierry Henry

Lots of stars on this team, but the real "that's just not fair" talent comes from Henry and Zidane (in his prime).  Maybe you could include the Brick Wall of Thuram back in the late 90s.  Vieira is that rare great ballwinner who adds a lot going forward, up there with Edgar Davids or Roy Keane back in the day.  However, a lot of this team is the core of the '98-'00 World Cup and Euro winning teams, 8 years on, so it's hard to say what to expect.

One thing I wondered about when I saw this line-up was how Barthez was still #1 for France since I hadn't heard his name since he was finally beaten out by Tim Howard (USA!) at Manchester United and fucked off back to Marseille.  Barthez has had huge successes, played great in the World Cup and Euro wins, but tends to make things interesting, dropping a lot of balls and giving up rebounds on saves.  Apparently the top rated French keeper, Gregory Coupet, wondered about that decision too and left the French camp when he heard Barthez was going to start.  He seems to be back now, but it is interesting that Barthez has been such a lock over Coupet, Landreau, and Frey for the last decade.  (Actually, what the hell ever happened to Sebastian Frey, and how come he never plays for France?)

I'd address Switzerland, but their WC slogan "2006 - It's Swiss o'clock!" is so stupid it really put me off finding out more about Die Eidgennossen (some heavy drinking must have gone into that nickname).  France's "Liberte, Egalite, Jules Rimet" actually does show some wit, playing off of Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.  I'm also a little pissed about Ireland being eliminated by Switzerland and France in qualifying.

A couple plays worth commenting on occurred within minutes of each other in the first 30 minutes, which a helpful somebody assured me were uneventful, before dropping hints about the final result (a topic I may return to before Brazil v Croatia).  First Thierry Henry's run to the goal-line where upon running out of room to make a play after breaking down the defense, Henry sent a nice gentle rolling pass across the mouth of the goal, which nobody touched because nobody followed up on his run.  Sylvain Wiltord, for instance.  Speaking of Sylvain Wiltord, moments later he lived up to the most vivid description I've ever heard of his primary weakness as a player:  "He has the first touch of a rapist."  Playing a high ball, wide open, he thumps it off the ground so hard he has to wait for it to come back down to kick it, but instead finds the ribs of the Swiss defender who closed with him while he was waiting.  I'd also like to take a moment to laugh my ass off at Frei and Senderos getting way behind the French defenders on a free kick, only for Frei to put the ball of the post, then helpfully volley the rebound out of the penalty area.  Granted, my goal-scoring record in my soccer career was like 0 in 10 years, but I was still amused.

This game turned into a mugging at some point, and I hope Les Bleus remember to cancel their credit cards and change their locks.  Seriously nasty, lots of cards issued, to the Swiss for dangerous play and handballs, and to the French for annoying the ref.  Sometimes fair does not mean even-handed.  The Swiss were still lucky since the handball in the 37th minute where a Swiss player knocked the ball to his keeper drew no reaction, and in the last minute of the game when Frei punched the ball over the crossbar, if it had gone in he'd have been tossed.  And can these people make any kind of play on the ball without grabbing a fistful of blue fabric first?

Another key set of plays, within minutes of each other, Henry nutmegs Senderos to set up a decent chance for France, which comes to nothing.  Just in case Senderos didn't look stupid enough, he took it to the next level moments later, when chasing down a long ball intended for Ribery, he jumps to try to play the ball in the air, but mistimes it and the ball bounces under his feet.  Ribery streaks in for a one-on-one with the keeper, but loses his nerve and passes it out to Henry who can't control it quickly enough to get a good shot off.  Pretty typical for the day.

A couple of interesting subs, Switzerland brought on Daniel Gygax in the <dice roll> 57th minute and nearly put the game away for them.  More historic was the appearance in the last three minutes of Vikash Dhorasoo for France.  Dhorasoo is the first player of Indian descent to ever play in a World Cup, since the Indian team that qualified for Brazil'50 was denied permission to play barefoot and withdrew.  I think most people thought a British asian would be the first, and I certainly did a double-take when I saw him getting ready to come in.  The two great things are in the closing minutes of the game he took arguably France's best shot of the game, just wide of the post, and that now Les Bleus have once again given the finger to French racists by playing white, black, arab, and asian players together.

This game was supposed to be for the group win, so now it's down to Togo and South Korea to play spoiler or if France continues to stutter in front of the goal or the Swiss get their whole team suspended, take it themselves.

France 0-0 Switzerland
(stick to making cheese)